The use of a credit card to purchase goods or services is one example of the use of an identification card to facilitate a transaction. In general, identification cards are produced by “issuers” for use by particular individuals (“authorized users”) in dealing with others referred to herein as “vendors.” Vendors include, for example, providers of goods and/or services. Besides credit cards, other identification cards include debit cards, gift cards, government-issued identification cards, airline tickets, etc., each of which facilitates a kind of transaction between the authorized user and a vendor.
Commonly, data identifying the authorized user to the issuer is stored on the card in electronic form (such as in a magnetic stripe, a bar code, a radio frequency identification (RFID) chip or the like) as “card data” for use by computerized processing systems used by vendors and issuers. For example, by swiping the magnetic stripe of a credit card in a conventional Point of Sale (POS) terminal, a vendor can ask the credit card issuer to approve the transaction and thus assure that the issuer will advance funds to the vendor on behalf of the card user.
It is common to for a vendor and an identification card user to engage in security measures as part of the routine use of the card, e.g., to assure that the person presenting the identification card to the vendor is the authorized user of the card. For example, a credit card user is asked to hand-sign a paper slip so that the signature can be compared to a reference signature on the credit card itself, and a debit card user is asked to key a PIN (personal identity number) into an electronic key pad. In some situations, a card user is asked to present a “picture ID,” i.e., a second identification card that bears a photo of the card user together with the card user's name as shown on the credit card.
Despite conventional security measures, a problematic volume of unauthorized uses of identification cards occurs. A common kind of unauthorized use of an identification card is the unauthorized use of a stolen credit card for fraudulent purchases of goods and services. The losses that result from unauthorized use of credit cards are often borne by the card user, the card issuer and/or the vendor. Other kinds of losses and hazards of fraudulent uses of identification cards (such as the admission of an imposter into a restricted area) are sometimes borne by others.